Clarifying the vision will help you attract the kind of parents and children that will suit you and what you are trying to do. I always return to questions such as, What do I believe in? What do I want to help create? What will best help parents and their children? It’s very important to envisage what you want your program to look like and to become. This can be a somewhat precarious moment for your program. Especially when you’re starting out, there’s a bit of pressure on you if students are needed to fill those empty places. Parents bring their child to meet you, eager to start and willing to pay your term fees. There’s an important relationship between how you choose parents to suit your vision, the Big Picture, and its implications for great home practice.Ĭhoosing parents and students might seem a ‘no-brainer’.
How to Make Learning the New Piece EasyĪfternoon home practice is the time to learn the new piece and to practise study points from the lesson.Ī key to successful practice at home rests right back at the moment you accept a parent and child into your violin program. Don’t they? Well, it depends on how you go about it. In this part of home practice we’re working with another positive principle: Children love to learn something new. It’s at the other end of the day, when time is more relaxed and more participation (work) is required from parents than the morning session.ĭone the right way this session can also be made easy and enjoyable. Learning the new piece is best achieved at Afternoon Practice. “ I just want to play a couple more songs before breakfast, Mom” is music to any parent’s ears. We all love to do what we can do well, and for children that’s especially true. Once it becomes a happy habitual part of the start of the day, the Morning Session of Home Practice is pretty easy. Common Mistakes Made by Teachers and Parents Remembering some of Suzuki’s kindly words in such cases I said in effect, “ Very good Sam… except that vibrato is made by the left hand.” To soften the disappointment I then added, “ Nonetheless, what you are doing is a very useful for learning how to control the weight of the bow on the string and the shape of each note.” It took a little time to explain and demonstrate the difference – and a few weeks for him to resist playing with his special vibrato. Even open A’s and E’s ‘vibrated’ alarmingly.
He had indeed taught himself a kind of vibrato, by pulsing his bow weight downwards as it moved along the string. I watched him as he launch into a passionate Long Long Ago, swaying with rapturous enthusiasm. Sam arrived at the first lesson of the new term, gushing out in an excited rush, “ John, I can play vibrato now!!!” When learning a new piece, for example, the result may be what teachers call ‘beautiful’ mistakes – errors made fluent through repetition.Ī humorous example of this type of mistaken practice was a young Book One student who spent his school holiday in enthusiastic pursuit of his heart’s desire – vibrato. To do this, it becomes very important to know when you’re making one, because unless we clearly identify errors, they are likely to be repeated – or in other words, practised. While it’s true we learn from our mistakes, a better course, if we can, is to avoid them in the first place.